Posted Jun 23, 2009, 5:42 AM
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Country Club Park, Greater Coronado, Midtown, Phoenix, Az
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http://www.azdailysun.com/articles/2...ont_198566.txt
Quote:
City touts four projects worth $100M
By JOE FERGUSON
Sun Staff Reporter
Monday, June 22, 2009
How would you spend nearly $100 million in taxpayer money?
It is a question the Flagstaff City Council is hoping residents will answer on Tuesday night as it holds a town hall forum on four major projects that will need voter approval to move forward. The meeting will be held in the Sinagua High School Commons from 6 to 8 p.m.
The most expensive of the four proposals is the Lone Tree Railroad Overpass, connecting Butler Avenue to Route 66 just east of downtown Flagstaff. The most recent estimate, according to City Manager Kevin Burke, has the construction of the overpass as well as securing the necessary property costing the city as much as $45 million to build
City planners believe that once Lone Tree is expanded to handle larger traffic volumes and connect to Route 66, traffic volume on Milton Road will decrease. But that prospect will be enhanced only if portions of Lone Tree Road between Butler Avenue and Interstate 40 are widened to four lanes, and a new highway interchange is built.
The widened Lone Tree would force the closure of Kinsey Elementary School, and require the city to compensate Flagstaff Unified School District.
CITY COURT TOO SMALL
A new city court is also being proposed at a cost of between $17 million and $23 million.
A study performed last year by an outside consultant suggested that the city needed a much larger facility -- between 40,000 to 50,000 square feet -- to handle current case loads. The size of the current city court is roughly 15,000 square feet.
The city is also testing the waters on building a new public works yard in west Flagstaff, with an estimated $20 million price tag.
The current facility is no longer adequate to keep up with the city maintenance needs, with at least some work being performed in the yard, not in the garages.
If approved, the city would eventually move the public works yard out of the location near Flagstaff Middle School.
Several departments have expressed interest in the property, but the city's environmental sustainability manager, Rebecca Sayers, said the soil might need to be cleaned up first before any department could move in.
She said large fuel tanks have already been removed but the building might have some surface contamination from being used for decades by the city to repair heavy machinery and vehicles.
LAP POOL FOR AQUAPLEX
The city is also interested in building an eight-lane, 25-meter competitive lap pool adjacent to the Aquaplex for roughly $10 million. A competitive lap pool had been part of the design in the voter-approved 2004 aquatic center bond, but was eliminated to save projected costs of building the current Aquaplex.
Burke said there is some discussion by councilmembers that the city should build an Olympic-size swimming pool, which would be 50 meters long. But if the city moved forward with the larger pool it would need to be build somewhere else and would likely cost more than $10 million.
While the Council has given tacit approval to the four bond proposals, Burke is encouraging residents to speak up about bond projects they might want to see on the November 2010 ballot.
"It is a town hall, so bring it up," he said.
Joe Ferguson can be reached at jferguson@azdailysun.com or 556-2253.
Four bond projects
Lone Tree Railroad Overpass $45M
New City Court $17M-$23M
New Public Work Yard $20M
New Lap Pool $10M
Total: $92M-$98M
If you go...
Town Hall meeting to discuss capital projects
Tuesday, June 23
6-8 p.m.
Sinagua High School Commons
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